The household spirit

the long version

A powerful, poignant and bighearted novel, from the acclaimed author of All Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well--the story of an unlikely friendship between a middle-aged loner and a grieving college student. Howie Jeffries -- avid fisherman, longtime GE wastewater plant worker, social recluse -- lives in isolation, out on rural Rt. 29 in Glen Falls, NY. Well, not alone exactly -- there's one other house adjacent to his own. But although Howie and Emily Phane have been neighbors since the day she was born twenty-odd years earlier, they've never actually spoken. Both have their reasons--Howie is debilitatingly shy and Emily tries to hide the fact that she suffers from a nighttime affliction that makes her terrified to go to sleep--but when tragedy strikes, the neighbors are forced into a friendship so surprising that neither of them could have ever imagined how it will change their lives. Here Tod Wodicka ("a superb writer"--Kevin Brockmeier) has crafted a classic story of a friendship between two misfits--and a remarkable story of the capabilities of the human heart.